Traitor's Blood
by EponymousAnonymous
Summary: Life is normal for two particularly abnormal human beings - Catlin and Leyna - until they're dragged into an evil plot involving new worlds, new faces, and new enemies. Can they do what must be done to get back home in one piece? Or will something force them to stay...?
1. Chapter 1: Breaktime

As the break bell rang, all the tension of overcomplicated calculus and confusing formulae melted away like the ice caps the students in the worn, draft-ridden school had been ear-bent into researching. Time began to speed up as the poky corridors filled, and waves of students washed down them in surging tides. A pair of students were being propelled along by the crest of such a wave, and barely managed to scramble to the edge of the hallway before a potentially crushing gush of people raced past, making them glad they dived sideways when they did.

These two were an unusual pair. One had the appearance of an over-exaggerated individual: mid-brown hair, purple streaks, and striking purple eyes. She stood a good few inches above the tide in the corridor, and her slim body allowed her to press against the wall without any possibility of getting barged by passers-by. Her companion, however, had less luck.

It wasn't that Leyna was a heavy person; in fact, she was quite the opposite. It's just that her exceptionally wide shoulders and irregular state of dress made her rebound off anyone within a not-inconsiderable radius of her thin frame with gusto. As she bounced off another shoving student, she decided to abandon any hope of diplomacy. With a single well-aimed shunt, she pushed hard into the nearest pupil, causing a domino effect, resulting in a remarkably squishy human carpet. The purple-eyed one sighed as her friend dismounted the disgruntled heap on the hallway floor.

'Leyna, I thought you said you weren't going to get detention this week.' She looked at her friend disappointedly, smirking inwardly as the home-made cape Leyna had crafted for herself wafted back around her shoulders as she touched down on the polished floor once more. Leyna was such a jerk sometimes.

'Sorry!' the white-haired girl sang, skipping up to her friend with a satisfied grin on her face. 'So, Cat, what d'you want to do?' the tall girl sighed again, and pushed a door behind her open. She gestured towards the open doorway, and spoke.

'I think in here's the best bet,' she began, as the ex-human carpet began shuffling out of sight, 'so the teachers don't find us. We never go in here.' Leyna groaned enthusiastically.

'There's a reason why we never go in here...' She whined. Cat strode across the corridor, and took Leyna's ear in one hand. She led the whining girl across the corridor, and into the silent room beyond.

The library was a large and inviting room, with two clearly defined sections. To their left, the girls could see a maze of shelves stacked with fiction books, and their right offered the factual alternative. In front of them were three computer islands, each with six computer stations. Carefully, Leyna approached one, having brushed off her less-than-subtle friend. She crouched, making her head level with the small screen. Fumbling her hand round the face of the tower to its side, she eventually found the power switch, and pushed it triumphantly.

The undersized monitor almost instantly snapped into life, and the bright light it cast made Leyna's deathly-pale irises contract sharply, neutralising the unwanted illumination. The screen did not depict the typical school login page, with simple, uninteresting boxes into which simple usernames and uninteresting passwords were entered. Instead, it displayed the boot-strap interface, with a suitably geeky typeface scrolling messages across the screen. Leyna's eyes narrowed even further when she read what it said.

Behind her, Cat leaned curiously over her friend's shoulder, and peered at the screen. Seeing the message, she slapped Leyna on the back of the head.

'Not funny, Lane!' she protested, putting her hands on her hips. Leyna turned around, a mildly offended scowl on her face.

'Catlin…' she whispered, realisation of the message starting to sink in, 'that wasn't me.' Catlin scoffed, and went to slap again. Before she could do so, however, her gaze was drawn by the screen, across which more writing was materialising. She could see her innocent friend raise her hands in surrender out of the corner of her eye, and still the writing continued.

Catlin Driscoll. If you want to see your family in one piece again, do as I instruct.

_This isn't happening._ Catlin thought to herself. _This CANNOT be happening. This is Hollywood nonsense, right? _She tried to reassure herself, but was interrupted by a buzzing coming from her right pocket. Reaching into her worn skinny jeans, she pulled out her purple-cased smartphone, unlocked it, and saw that she had '1 new message'. She opened it, and consequently dropped her phone in horror.

Leyna gasped in surprise as her friend shrieked. She gawped at the picture that had come up on the small screen, her mouth sagging open in disbelief. She may not have known much, but she knew enough of her friend to recognise the image of both Cat's parents, bound, gagged and bruised in a dark room. It wasn't that the blood seeping out of their mouths unnerved her at all, it was more that she knew how distressed Catlin would be… and Catlin never got distressed. She was a rock, and someone as wild as Leyna knew that she needed a steady mooring, else she'd go off the rails. This was bad. Very bad indeed.

Catlin wanted to cry, but she couldn't with Leyna there, her eyes wide like a scrounging puppy. She sucked it up, and read the text under the disgusting picture aloud.

'These two are in a very bad way, as you can see,' Leyna flinched as Catlin stifled a sob under her words, 'and they need medical attention. Unless you come to the roundabout on Gun Cotton Way at 5:00pm this evening, I will post them back to you in tiny pieces.' Catlin was glad there was no more to read, as she was crying already, and it was only a matter of time until she started balling.

For Leyna, the rest of the school day had been pretty much a blur. She wasn't the worrying type, as worrying was too human for her liking, but she'd wanted to be there for Catlin. No, she _needed_ to be there. Ever since middle school, Catlin had been there, blagging both of them out of trouble. She'd managed to haul Leyna out of class before their RE teacher realised that it was her who had drawn the infamous 'Darwin Fish' in indelible marker on the main board. She had come up with an acceptable excuse to take Leyna out of the classroom just before the makeshift flamethrower fashioned from a Bunsen Burner incinerated the textbooks, too. She owed her one, and she determined that this was a good way to help. So, with the rain beating down on the top of her head from the threateningly grey sky above, and the wind nipping spitefully at the back of her ankles, Leyna was waiting.

Agitated that nothing had happened, she drew the collar of her homemade cloak up around her neck, and began pacing, futuristic boots clicking acutely on the tarmac. Admittedly, she had been laughed at many times for her unusual choice of clothing, but nothing felt better than her cotton-lined suede 'hunter's cloak', that draped around her shoulders like water over a waterfall, accentuating her already vampire-like features. Besides, those who didn't appreciate that some people have taste deserved to eat dust.

Leyna had never quite understood why she always got reprimanded for defending what mattered to her. If someone so much as touched Catlin, they would feel pain, so what's wrong with people getting what they deserve? Everyone, including Catlin, said that she was too violent, but she was sure that passion and violence are two separate things: one is justified, and the other is just plain sadistic.

Leyna was lurched from her musings by the low rumble of a slightly battered engine, presumably from a van of some description. She turned, and smiled inwardly as a black Transit slowed at the curb some way ahead, as if it was waiting for something. _Or someone, rather. _She could just about make out a figure approaching the vehicle, but half a glance was all that was required before Leyna knew who it was.

'Catlin!' she hollered, her deeper-than-average voice cutting through the stormy gloom like a chainsaw. She began to run towards her friend, and was egged on by the reassuring crack as the suede and cotton cloak snapped to attention as she darted down the road. She knew that Catlin would be angry with her, but she also knew she'd never know why. Sure enough, her friend turned, and Leyna mentally remarked that she would have looked far more dramatic if she'd worn something loose-fitting for a change, like a cape, or flowing dress. Oh, the times she'd tried to convince her that skinny jeans and tank tops were classless…

Yet again, Leyna's thoughts were interrupted, as Catlin screamed at her, fear obvious in her voice.

'Run, Lane!' Leyna stopped, perplexed.

'I _was_ running!' She began, cocking her head. From behind her friend, the reasons for the outcry made themselves known. Three imposing men, each wearing balaclavas, and bearing what Leyna assumed to be automatic machine-guns, emerged from the back of the Transit van, two of which began heading toward her. She looked on in despair as the other man headed for Catlin. She'd seen things like this happen in movies, and they never went well for the damsel in distress. True, they always got rescued by some detective or other, but the pain they endured before then, particularly when the kidnappers brandished machine-guns, was unnecessary.

'Hey! THICKET!' she yelled, making everyone turn to face her in bafflement. Starting to move again, she strode confidently at the first man, increasing her stride to make her cloak wave more dramatically in the biting wind. She could see Catlin put her hand over her face, in both fear and embarrassment, but she disregarded the gesture. She pointed accusingly at the man nearest her friend. 'Yes, you! If you so much as lay a finger on-'

Leyna was cut off, as a searing pain burnt through the back of her skull, followed by the not-so-dissimilar sensation of her face impacting the tarmac road. Her vision had blacked over, and she was vaguely aware of arching her back in pain, and groaning. This was not ideal.

Catlin gasped as she saw the second man strike her friend on the back of the head with the hilt of his weapon, causing her to hit the ground hard. She tried to run toward her, but was restrained by thick, muscle bound arms that wrapped round her chest, pulling her backwards. She tried to scream, but the gag that was forced into her mouth allowed only a futile whimper as she was lifted from the ground, and thrown into the back of the van.


	2. Chapter 2: Waking Up

Searing light bled through Catlin's eyelids, making her aware that the world outside was still functioning. Also, the eardrum-splitting silence made her feel remarkably self-conscious. She tried to open her eyes, but was overwhelmed by the bright sunlight, making her screw her eyes shut again, and groan in discomfort.

'Too much to drink last night, kiddo?' an unfamiliar voice broke the silence, and shook Catlin out of her drowsy stupor. Now willing to brave the radiant world outside her eyelids, Catlin opened her eyes to see who had spoken. To her dismay, there was no 'who' involved at all.

Stooped over her, a strange, white-skinned creature stood, with her large domed head cocked to one side, almost amusedly. Catlin could just about make out a series of loosely curled… things… hanging delicately around the inviting, if somewhat alien body, which was clad in a burgundy tank top, black shorts and worn combat boots. As she focused, the oversized, multi-coloured eyes set in the centre of its disc-like face became the least of her worries. As the white glare eased, she could make out what looked like a huge pair of bat wings folded neatly behind the outlandish figure above her. The dark-winged creature smiled, showing a row of pearly-white, flawless teeth. Catlin screamed.

'See? I told you you're scary!' A voice from behind the bat-creature said provokingly. Catlin couldn't see where the voice was coming from, but she could see from the look on the white thing's features that the two were acquainted. Noticing Cat's glazed over expression, the winged stranger smirked, and lowered both her hands in an offer of help. Unwilling to remain on the floor, Catlin took the hands that were proffered, remarking at how soft the white cloth gloves on them were.

The world sloshed into uprightness, and Catlin's brain couldn't quite keep up. Not only was the alien environment she found herself in nigh-on impossible to compute, but her head throbbed from an impact of some kind, and a part of her still wanted to be unconscious. All around her, creatures of a similar design to the one in front of her milled around, as if they were perfectly normal people with perfectly normal lives. She was in a park of some description, and shiny, glass-covered tower blocks bordered it neatly, giving the impression of a well-established society. Seeing her baffled expression, the gloved stranger chuckled, and held out a hand once more.

'I'm Rosa. Hi!' Catlin looked at the hand, and then to Rosa's face. Silently, she took it, and shook gently.

'…Catlin.' She mumbled, staggering backwards unsteadily.

'Whoa! Easy, there,' She felt a pair of warm hands on her back as she stumbled, and they propped her up. Once she'd regained her balance, the owner of the hands walked around her, until he and Catlin were face-to-face. A blue, spiky-headed individual stood, with a welcoming glint in his huge green eyes. The spiky character grinned, and also held out a gloved hand for shaking. 'Catlin. That's your name, right?' Catlin nodded slowly. The figure grinned even wider, and then introduced himself, taking her hand in his as he did so. 'I'm Sonic; Sonic the Hedgehog. Good to meet you!'

'H-hi…?' Catlin ventured, still somewhat nonplussed by the events. She put her hand to the back of her head to rub it absent-mindedly, and touched a part of it that complained. She winced as pain shot through her skull, and prickled irritably at the top of her neck. That must have been one _hell_ of a blow for it to hurt that bad.

'So… what brings you here?' Rosa prompted, bringing Catlin's thoughts back to the present. She shrugged, and explained the best she could.

'Um… someone hit me over the head, and then I was taken somewhere… here.' She looked around; reasoning that here was where her kidnappers had intended to dump her. Rosa frowned sympathetically, and put a comforting hand on Catlin's shoulder. Before she could speak, however, her blue companion stepped in front, coming between the two, dramatically increasing everyone's amount of personal space. Rosa sighed, exasperated, and removed her hand, placing it on her hip defiantly. Sonic spoke regardless.

'Can I take you home?' he asked. Catlin was thrown by this: she'd been awake less than a minute, and she'd already had a move made on her by a bright blue 'hedgehog' that was wearing gloves, trainers and absolutely nothing else. With a shove, Rosa heaved Sonic off to one side, so that she could look Catlin in the eye.

'What he means to say is, we need to know where you live, so we can drop you off at your house. Do you know how to get home from here?' Catlin thought for a moment, then reached into her trousers. Glad that it was still there, she pulled her phone out of her pocket, and began flicking through her apps. Out of the corner of her eye, Catlin could see Sonic tap Rosa on the shoulder, and whisper in her ear.

'I think you lost her. Should I-' He was cut off as the object of his statement let out a frustrated growl, and stuffed her phone back into her pocket. When she looked up and saw his perplexed expression, Catlin explained.

'I have absolutely no idea where I am, because I can't reach the GPS satellite from here. Is there a shop nearby with free Wi-Fi or something?' she looked from Sonic to Rosa, who now also looked equally confused.

'What's Wi-Fi?' Sonic asked, baffled. Catlin looked at him, shocked. She rolled her eyes, suddenly far more comfortable now that she was no longer the idiot of the situation. She sighed dramatically, and enlightened him.

'It's a wireless method of connecting to the internet, a network that allows you to browse hundreds of millions of websites that are about literally anything. It's also free in some shops.' Catlin had hit her stride, and was clearly talking too quickly for Sonic to keep up; his continued blank expression was unmistakeable. Catlin chuckled a little, and felt somehow welcomed by the blue hedgehog's lack of understanding. For some reason, she felt she could trust him, whether she was dreaming or not.

'So… "Wi-Fi" is how you play games and stuff?' Rosa input, and she was clearly grasping the concept.

'Yeah. I was going to use it to find out where I am, but…' she shook her phone as if it were defective, and Rosa nodded understandingly. Sonic frowned, and turned to Rosa, wanting an explanation. She noticed, and leant in to whisper in his ear.

'Just go with it.' She instructed. Sonic nodded, and thought for a moment. When something came to him, he snapped his fingers triumphantly.

'Catlin,' he began, his eyes lighting up, 'd'you wanna come see Tails?' he gestured over his shoulder with his thumb. 'We're right by his place, and he can find out how to get you home.' Catlin was open to the idea, but was unsure of whose house she'd be 'dropping round'.

'Why's he called Tails?' She enquired quizzically. Beside Sonic, Rosa sighed, and placed her hand over her face theatrically. Sonic started to chuckle, and Catlin felt inferior again, so shut her mouth and looked at her feet. Still amused, Sonic spluttered slightly through his laughter.

'That's a first,' he snickered, his body shaking gently with mirth. He turned to Rosa, and shrugged light-heartedly, 'and probably a last.' His companion grinned subtly, but soon stopped, signalling for him to do the same. He looked back to Catlin as Rosa spoke.

'You sure you can trust us?' Catlin was baffled. She looked at the pale-skinned girl in front of her, and cocked her head to one side. After a long moment of thought, she answered.

'No.' Rosa beamed, and slapped Catlin heartily on the back.

'At least they didn't hit you THAT hard.'

* * *

Catlin guessed that they must have been walking for around half an hour. Clearly, 'Mobians' had a different perspective of what was nearby than she did. At least, that's what she thought they'd called themselves, as she was too distracted by the scenery to pay much attention to her now not-so-disconcerting companions.

The sunlight was warm against the side of her face as they broke from the side of yet another chrome-edged tower block, and she squinted as the glare yet again made it hard to see the fascinating world around her. In the more introspective part of her mentality, she noted how similar the city was to the positive representations of New York, and a familiar song about the great metropolis began to creep into the back of her mind.

She'd not liked it much herself, but Leyna was always going on about how brilliant this particular band was. She couldn't even remember their name now, but the memory stung at the sudden remembrance of her friend. _Where is Leyna?_ She restrained the panic that began to writhe in the pit of her stomach, reasoning that, although she needed to find out if she was okay, it would make more sense to find out where she was first. Relaxing once more, Catlin turned her gaze to her escorts.

The way they behaved was actually quite human, and not unlike a pair of competitive siblings, each vying for Catlin's interest over and above the other. When they realised that she wasn't intending to pay either of them any attention above following where they were going, however, they'd given up, and began talking as if she weren't there. _More like old friends,_ she thought to herself, watching with mild interest as Sonic began to mock Rosa over her affinity for pyrotechnics.

'I am NOT a pyromaniac. It just happens! It's not like I meant to!'

'Tell that to Tails. It took him months to make that Tornado, y'know.' Sonic quipped, a playful smirk spreading across his face. Rosa sighed, and shook her head theatrically.

'I apologised, didn't I?'

'He cried.'

'What was I supposed to do about it? Make him another one?' Sonic's expression levelled almost immediately as he realised the validity of her argument.

'You have a point.' He glanced over at his friend, who huffed at the remark.

'Hey!' she prodded Sonic hard in the shoulder, making him jerk sideways, and then prod equally hard back. As the two descended into a poking fight, Catlin stopped in the middle of the wide boulevard, and tried to take in the scene in front of her. About fifty yards ahead, the familiar bony figure of her close friend could be discerned yelling at a passer-by, who was gradually backing further and further away. As the figure turned and ran, Cat saw Leyna's head turn as she surveyed her surroundings, before finally picking her friend out of the crowd. Catlin sighed as Leyna waved her arms frantically, and raised a hand in recognition of her friend spotting her. Noticing, Leyna began to run full-pelt at Catlin, her boots clanging noisily on the paved road.

'CAT!' Before she could get out of the way, Leyna ploughed into her much-missed friend, sending them both sprawling over backwards. Catlin groaned as her head yet again impacted something hard, and winced in pain as Leyna squeezed her forcefully, relief obvious in her voice.

'OhmygodCatyou'reokayyou'reokayyou'reokay-' Leyna's gibberish was interrupted by Rosa, who stood over the two of them with an amused smirk on her face.

'So, that's how you do reunions where you come from…' Yet again before Catlin could act, Leyna had sprung to her feet, and was glaring coldly at Rosa.

'What's it to you?!' she snapped, her head sinking into her shoulders as she hunched over, ready to pounce. All Rosa did in retaliation was let out a light chuckle, which made Leyna bristle, leaning even further over, and clench her hands around themselves, squeezing all the blood out of her knuckles, leaving dead-white streaks down each finger.

'Nothing much. Just idle interest.' Rosa grinned good-naturedly, and Leyna began to growl in a way that was all too familiar to Catlin, who was still on the floor, observing the proceedings from underneath. She rolled her eyes as her gaunt friend rotated each of her large shoulders in turn, making a satisfying clunk noise as they knocked into place. Leyna was overreacting… as usual.

'I suggest… you back… up.' The stress that Leyna put on the last word was, to her mind, pretty imposing. She was pleased with how the snap-like noise of the 'p' cut through the air a little, particularly after those dramatic pauses. This time, however, it was not Rosa who chuckled mockingly. It was the blue creature standing beside her, who had one hand held to his face, his index and middle fingers resting between his huge eyes, and his thumb on the top of his cheek. The amused smirk he bore on his face was unmistakable, and Leyna turned slightly to fix both of her steel-grey eyes on her new target. She began to seethe even more as the blue figure spoke.

'Hey, there's no need to be so aggressive.' He jerked his thumb to Catlin, who had propped herself up on one of her elbows, and was trying once more to rise to her feet. 'You're her friend, right?' Before Sonic could continue, Leyna had taken one long stride, putting her face mere inches from his, a snarl playing on her lips. He backed off a little as she raised one fist, ready to put his lights out.

'She IS my friend, so I think you should BACK OFF!' Sonic raised his hands in surrender, and gave up on explaining himself.

'Jeez, she's worse than Knuckles…' he muttered, glancing at Rosa entreatingly, who nodded in understanding.

'Hey, kiddo!' Leyna's head snapped to face the pale-skinned creature, whose expression was now set in a stern glare. 'You need to simmer down.' Leyna growled, and Catlin sighed.

'Lane, they're fine. Leave them be.' She said, from her position - now standing - behind Rosa, holding one hand out reassuringly. 'They're friends.' Leyna's face softened, and Sonic breathed a sigh of relief as Leyna cocked her head, clearly feeling a lot less threatened now her friend had spoken.

'They are?' When Catlin nodded, Leyna lowered her fist, and relaxed back into her normal stance, back straight and shoulders pushed back. Her attention then turned back to the two 'friends' in front of her, and she thrust out a hand in greeting. 'I'm Leyna! Hi!' She chirped, taking Rosa aback with her sudden change of attitude. Warily, she took the hand in front of her, which made Leyna grin, and shake it vigorously.

'I'm Rosa. Nice… to meet you…?' she ventured, making Sonic chuckle and hold out his hand for the shaking.

'And I'm Sonic. Good to meet ya!' Rosa hastily let go of Leyna's hand, practically encouraging Sonic to take over. He seized her Leyna's hand eagerly, and shook it with an enthusiasm that matched hers. This astounded Leyna a little, and she broke into a broad grin. Sonic reciprocated, and then added, 'Don't worry about Rosa, she's weird,' gaining a disdainful look from the aforementioned individual, before he leant in a little, and whispered, 'I'd blame it on the bat blood if I were you.'

'HEY!' Rosa complained, walking up behind her companion and clouting him viciously round the back of the head, 'If anything's wrong with me, it's the hedgehog blood's fault.' Sonic chuckled disparagingly, and rubbed the back of his head.

'Trust me, there's a lot wrong with you, and it's definitely not down to the hedgehog.' Rosa scoffed, and poked Sonic hard in the shoulder.

'That's what YOU think!' As the two descended into argument, Leyna looked over their shoulders to Catlin for reassurance. She shrugged, so Leyna walked round the pair, joining her friend a little nearer the curb. Lowering her voice so as to not be heard, she enquired after her friend's wellbeing.

'Are you okay? You seem to have an escort.' Catlin again shrugged, and replied in a similar tone.

'Yeah, they found me when I woke up. We're heading over to Tails' house so he can find us a way home.' Leyna nodded slowly, clearly trying to digest this information. After a moment or two, her head cocked questioningly.

'They sure have weird names here, huh?' Catlin smiled and nodded, laughing a little.

'Yeah, they do.' She looked round Leyna, and called to the two Mobians, 'Hey! You two done?' Almost instantly, they fell silent, and looked to each other, then to the girls, and nodded at Catlin in unison, almost as if they were embarrassed to be caught arguing.

'Then can we go?' Leyna asked, childlike enthusiasm washing over her face.

'Sure,' Rosa stated, walking around Sonic, who eyed her as if she was about to make an attempt on his life, 'Not far to go, now. You coming, Leyna?' As quickly as it had come, Leyna's trusting exterior had been dissolved into the previous one, and she scowled and turned to Catlin.

'If they think there's any possibility of me leaving you alone with a bunch of freaks-' She hissed, only to be silenced by a raising of Cat's hand.

'We're the freaks now, Lane. Come on, let's go.' Leyna watched dumbfounded as her friend walked calmly over to the two outlandish strangers, and beckoned for her to do the same.

'Come on!' Sonic complained, beginning to tap his foot impatiently. Realizing there was nothing else for it, Leyna sighed heavily, and joined her friend and the two creatures, and immediately fell to the back of the group, intending to keep an eye on everyone. Knowing her all too well, Catlin sighed, and reached a hand behind herself, clasping it round Leyna's wrist, and pulling her round so that the two girls were level. She gave Leyna a small encouraging smile.

'You okay, Lane?' she asked as the four began walking.

'I think so,' Leyna supplied cautiously, clearly still a little perturbed by events, 'but I don't trust them.' She gestured to the Mobians in front of her, who were yet again talking as if no-one else was there.

'If they were going to do something to us, don't you think they would have done it by now?' Catlin reasoned, raising a hand to shield her face as they turned a corner, already anticipating the glare. Leyna did nothing to react to the harsh sunlight, and instead sighed as the light made her irises contract sharply, leaving the impression of two white orbs with black pinpricks on them.

'Yes, unless they had other plans,' Leyna countered, 'we don't know how they work here.' Catlin let out a small chuckle, and Leyna looked at her confusedly.

'As much as they may not look like it, Lane, they are actually people. And nice people at that.' She added, realizing how easy it could have been for the two to mug her or leave her abandoned in the street.

'I don't trust _people_, Cat.' Leyna contested, her voice barely above a hiss. Catlin sighed, and patted her friend's back in between her shoulder blades.

'Then you've got a lot to learn, my friend.'

* * *

**Sorry this took so long to update, peoples. I have been writing, but parts that are wholly and entirely impossible to post straight after the first chapter. Anyways, all going well, there should be more chapters on the way. You're welcome to read and review, but by no means feels pressured into doing so. Thanks!**

**Oh, and Rosa belongs to HallowThorn. Thanks for the pyromaniac, Georgia!**


	3. Chapter 3: Introductions

As it turned out, Tails' 'place' was more of an underground base than it was a home. Having approached it from the front, Leyna was immediately underwhelmed by the small, two-up-two-down layout of the place. She looked forlornly at Cat, who just shrugged as Sonic approached the front door, pulling a key out from under the cuff of his glove. She hoped that the majesty of the tower blocks to the scrawny building's flanks would be matched once she got inside the place, but she found that majesty had gone on holiday, and had been replaced by ingenuity, practicality, and an extremely overactive imagination.

Leyna couldn't stop her mouth from sagging open a little as she gazed around at the cacophony of wires, bits of electrical appliances and blueprints strewn all over the place, which was giving the impression that an explosion went off in a junkyard, and was hence recreated throughout the house.

In the centre of it all, appearing somewhat oppressed by all this clutter even in such a small room, was a proportionately small, yellow-furred Mobian, his ears and figure bent attentively over a large sheet of paper, over which he was scrawling wildly, as if he was afraid his inspiration may die at any second. As the four walkers neared him, one of his oversized ears swivelled, and picked up on the noise of Sonic shutting the door behind them. Without looking up, he called to his friend, and, unlike the sheer unrestrained genius that was evident throughout the place, his childlike voice betrayed his youth.

'Hey, Sonic! I'll be there in a sec, just hang on…!' Tails trailed off, his tongue appearing at the edge of his mouth as he finished a line with a satisfied flourish, before throwing his pencil down and rushing to the corridor. As he reached the threshold of his room, however, he stopped dead in his tracks, seeing a strange girl with anaemically pale eyes and skin looking enquiringly at him, her gaunt head cocked like some kind of domestic animal. Tails gulped. She waved.

'Hello!' the girl chirruped, bounding up to Tails and pulling him into an unexpected hug. With his head immovable on her shoulder, he saw an equally unfamiliar girl standing in the corridor, a little way back, beside Sonic, who he expected to be to be his only company today. He gazed entreatingly at Sonic, who was frowning, slightly perplexed, at the back of the girl who had just forcefully hugged his friend for no apparent reason. Catching on the young fox's confusion, it was the other girl who next spoke.

'Sorry about Leyna, she does that sometimes. I'm Catlin, by the way, though most people call me Cat. Nice to meet you, Tails!' the girl walked forward, holding one hand out. Seeing her intention, Tails attempted to shrug apologetically, only to be squeezed tighter by Leyna, who seemed oblivious to everything other than how soft and warm these 'Mobians' were. Catlin grimaced slightly as she heard a faint popping noise, followed by a pained expression on Tails' face.

'Lane, let him go.' She instructed, making Leyna loose the yellow fox immediately, causing him to wheeze in relief and slump to the floor. Catlin rolled her eyes at her friend, who seemed surprised that Tails was not immune to asphyxia.

'Sorry, Cat.' Leyna looked at the floor ashamedly, realising her mistake. For a few moments, an awkward silence reigned over the group, until Sonic cleared his throat, making the now self-conscious Leyna jump.

'So, Tails, you still have that sat-track gear you had knockin' around somewhere?' Eager to break the awkwardness, Tails jumped at the chance.

'Uhh, y-yeah! What d'you need it for?' As he rushed for the door, he realised that knowing why it was required may help. His faithful blue friend jerked his thumb to the two humans.

'They need to get home.' He stated simply. Slowly, Tails nodded, and wandered off to go and get the necessary equipment. Eventually, he called from what sounded like underneath the floor they were standing on.

'SONIC! Can you come down here? It's a bit big…!' There was a crash, then a clang, and some muffled shouts as a pile of stuff gave way underneath the floor, presumably covering the young fox. Not without a slight smirk of amusement, Sonic darted back out the door, and disappeared into the bowels of the house.

A few seconds later, a second, even louder crashing indicated that the first pile was not the only one to be ready to fall, and was by no means the largest. Slightly concerned for her new friends' safety, Catlin called in the general direction of the basement.

'ARE YOU GUYS OKAY?' After a short series of thumping sounds, the reply came.

'Yeah, we're good!' There was then a pause, and a third crash, rivalling the first in volume.

'D'YOU NEED ANY HELP?' After some grunting, Sonic's slightly strained voice returned the yell.

'WE'RE OKAY THANKS!' Rosa, who was now standing nearer Cat than before, sighed and rolled her eyes, giving Leyna a small smirk.

'Boys...'she explained, tutting, 'they never accept help when they need it.' Leyna and Cat giggled, but were soon interrupted by a crescendo-like landslide from the basement, making the whole building vibrate slightly. Just how much stuff did he have down there…?

'HOW MUCH TRASH DO YOU EVEN OWN, TAILS?!' Rosa yelled incredulously.

'IT'S NOT TRASH, ROSA! NOT UNTIL YOU GET YOUR HANDS ON IT!' This brought another giggle from Leyna, who was shushed by Catlin. The same girl cocked her head toward Rosa.

'I take it you're not friends, then?' she enquired. Rosa shrugged nonchalantly.

'It's not so much that he hates me, it's more that his inventions hate me.'

'…right.' Catlin replied, clearly not sure what to make of that answer. Rosa chuckled warmly.

'You'll understand once you get to know him.' Catlin nodded, and turned to Leyna, who she knew acted strangely when conversations she had no knowledge of were taking place, particularly if she wasn't involved. And getting to know people was one such topic.

As expected, Leyna had turned away from Rosa and Cat, and was browsing the walls, which were plastered with blueprints of some sort. The designs varied slightly, but the theme remained the same.

'Lane!' Cat called, snapping Leyna out of it. She quickly looked over her shoulder at her minder-friend, and grinned, pointing to the plans.

'He makes planes, Cat.' She said, her eyes lighting with childish glee, the kind she adopted whenever she met someone. Not just met them, but wanted to get to know them. That had only ever happened once before, and that was when she met Cat. For the first time in some years, Leyna had smothered her cynicism with excitement. This new world might not be so bad after all…

Catlin sighed.

'I know, Lane. He's a kid genius, remember?'

'Huh?' Leyna cocked her head, having not heard this term before. Catlin's eyes rolled.

'The conversation we had with Sonic on the way here…?' she prompted, leading to a confused frown on the pallid girl's face. As far as she knew, there was no conversation involved; they were just looking at each other as they walked. Though, thinking on it further, Leyna could see that it was weird that Cat hadn't reprimanded her for staring at Sonic the whole way, so they must have been talking. Leyna hadn't noticed, clearly. For whatever reason, there was something about his eyes…

_A swathe of green grass waved gracefully in the midsummer breeze, greeting her as she walked through it, running her fingertips over the seed-heads at the end of each waist-high stem she passed. She smiled, a peaceful light flickering in the back of her eyes. As clouds passed overhead, she followed the shadows they cast, giggling as the deep emerald stripes skated over the blades of grass, likes waves on water, and passed over her almost white skin, making it look like she was used to being out in such fine weather. Interrupting her bliss, something echoed at the back of her mind, quiet yet persistent, making her turn to face it. When she did, all she could see was his eyes. As green as the grass in a midsummer's breeze…_

'Leyna!' With a jolt, Leyna was startled by her friend's voice. Bringing her vision back to reality, she looked to Catlin, who was scowling.

'I was talking to you.' She stated, the irritation obvious in her voice. Leyna blinked a few times, her mind still blurry.

'Yup.' she mumbled, acknowledging the words Cat said, but not understanding a syllable of them. An exasperated groan escaped her friend's lips as she waved her hands in the air in a frustrated manner.

'Why do I even bother?!' she hissed under her breath, turning her back on Leyna and facing Rosa, who shook her head slightly, a wry grimace on her muzzle. The two walked out of Leyna's sight, presumably disappearing into the cavernous basement. Leyna was still in a fuzzy daze, and was wondering foggily what it was exactly that she was thinking about a few moments ago. Unless this counted as still thinking about it, in which case she couldn't judge what is an indefinite thing…

As if her pondering was forbidden, a loud bang rattled through the house and Leyna's eardrums, making her yelp softly to herself. From somewhere within Leyna's close earshot, she could hear the scraping of thick soles on a bristly doormat. Alarmed, she raised her fists to waist height, and waited near the doorway as a deep-ish, irritated voice came from the other side of it.

'Tails, why'd you lock the door-' Before he could finish the word enough to shape it into a question, the new figure was pounced upon, and a bony fist was piled hard into his nose, smacking his head equally hard into the floor.

'What the- LEYNA!' from behind Leyna and the stranger, Rosa had run back to the hallway as the bang sounded, and was glaring threateningly at Leyna, who had presumably broken a boundary of some kind, her rainbow eyes flickering dangerously.

'What?' the accused girl asked, seriously concerned as to why Rosa would let a stranger into the house and not want him incapacitated.

'That's Knuckles.' came the reply, too venomous to discern as an exclamation. True to form, Leyna cocked her head.

'Problem?' Rosa's face was unchanged.

'Friend. Off.' Leyna digested the information for a few seconds, before mouthing "Oh! Sorry…" with her thin lips, and standing up, leaving the now broken-nosed Knuckles fuming at the incident.

'Get back here, you!' he growled, jumping to his feet and readying his exceptionally large fists. Leyna turned back to face him, and hissed, baring her teeth at the red Echidna.

'Lane…' Rosa warned, still angered by Leyna's lack of self-restraint, 'leave it.' In a moment, Knuckles' attention turned, though his mood did not.

'Who're you calling "it", Bat-Girl Wannabe?' This remark was met with a sarcastic chuckle from Rosa.

'The hot-headed idiot in the corner.' She said flatly, pulling a deadpan face on Knuckles, who growled under his breath.

'You think I'm the idiot here? Who let _that_ into the house?!' he asked incredulously, pointing at Leyna, who again snarled.

'…"that"?!' she spat, her raspy voice deeper than usual. She too raised her metaphorical hackles, and hunched over, ready for violence. From behind her, aggressively sarcastic eyes rolled.

'Leyna, just shut up.' Leyna now backed into the wall, standing to the side of the corridor so that she could see both of her 'opponents'. As if she really did have hackles to raise, she stretched her bony fingers, making each joint snap threateningly.

'You first.'

'How about everyone… NOW!' another voice tore through the tension, and immediately all other mouths shut. Looking in unison to where he stood, the three aggressors were silently dumbfounded as Sonic seethed, his uncharacteristic anger clear in his narrowed eyes. As his meadow-green irises flicked over the three of them, Leyna again found herself captivated, entirely forgetting her anger.

_Why midsummer? It's not-_

'LEYNA!' the anger having resided into medium annoyance, Sonic's voice had lost its aggressive tone, and was instead like a scathing schoolteacher, nearer his elder-brother persona that he usually adopted around others. This was one of the few things Leyna had noticed today, apart from his eyes, of course. Though she'd never admit it aloud, let alone to herself, she was captivated by them, and she had no idea why.

'Leyna?' she was pushed out of her mind again, this time by an elbow in the ribs from Knuckles.

'Y-yeah?' she looked around, confused. Knuckles facepalmed at her vacancy, and Sonic sighed, beginning to tap his foot in his trademark impatience. Rosa just rolled her eyes.

'I was talking to you.' Sonic clarified, holding a hand out exasperatedly, and half-turning away. His disappointment caught Leyna's attention, and she struggled to show some competence.

'Y-yeah, you were. When we were walking, right?' Now was Sonic's turn to facepalm, and he shook his head sadly.

'You have no idea, do you?' he asked, half disbelieving, half worrying for Leyna's mental state. Leyna gulped.

'N-n… no?' She knew no reason for it, but the look on Sonic's face made something in her chest sting faintly. She'd not felt this before.

_Super-cooled rain ricocheted off the pavement like rubber bullets in the riot of her head. Something new and unfriendly was squirming painfully inside her, like a snake on a griddle. And as much as she had swallowed it whole, she was regretting the sickening, writhing sensation that was plaguing her gut. But what scared her most was that she had no idea why this was happening. It felt like dying. _

_She just wished the feeling would._

'…you follow me so far?' Sonic finished his sentence, suspecting that Leyna had not listened at all, as the glazed look in her dead-pale eyes was a giveaway that he mentally made note to commit to memory. Leyna blinked a few times, and he could see her irises expand as they focused on him, as retreating into her mind had made her eyes contract, blocking most of the light out to aid her concentration… or lack thereof.

'You don't, do you?' Concern began to tinge his voice.

'Hm?' the girl's eyes flicked to his right eye, and tightened even further. Sonic sighed.

'Leyna…' he trailed off, thinking it wasn't worth finishing, as she wasn't listening anyway. He was wrong, though. The caring tone in his voice had captured her attention perfectly. Perfectly framed, those eyes, those irises…

She was gone again.

Rising out of the basement, carrying boxes of monitors, cables and what looked like a prehistoric toaster, Catlin glanced to the scene in the hallway. Her indigo eyes flicked from Knuckles, whose nosebleed had now stopped, to Rosa, who was looking agape at the icy-complexioned girl, and Sonic, who was doing the same. Finally, her eyes settled on Leyna, the focus of their attention. She had none, and was gazing blankly at the middle-distance in front of Sonic's face.

Eyes rolling, Catlin made a step towards her vacant friend, intending to try and snap her out of it. Before she could get the chance, however, something large and metallic made an impact on the boulevard on which Tails' house was settled, making dust fall from the ceiling, and windows rattle.

Scattering the crowd in a wake of rubble as it crushed the pavement, the metallic behemoth hissed, air escaping from the pistons on the back of its legs, softening its landing, almost as if it cared about the impact to the environment it landed in. Adjusting to its new locale, gears, processors and weapon systems whirred, and the machine angled its 'torso' up a little, until a certain small building was locked firmly into the center of its scanners' field of view. With a ringing click, the rockets in its launcher-arms knocked into place up against their firing pins, and, at an order from its main computer, they were launched, screaming, at their target.


End file.
